Into the Wind
by Tinsel Darkly
Summary: Two small town sisters buy a video game, expecting nothing more than to play it. How could they have known that they were going to become an important part of it? A story of adventure, of finding oneself, and of the importance of friendship.


AUTHOR'S NOTE IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ

AUTHOR'S NOTE IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ!: If you've been on for a good, long while, you may perhaps remember me as pen name Gaian Sorceress, and if you do, you may remember my SI story, Ariana's Legacy. I got to about the sixteenth chapter and then life got in the way and I was never able to finish it, much to the dismay of some of my more rabid readers (I know, I'm flattering myself). Give me a break, though; I was fifteen! Now, six years later, I've returned! I now live in Japan and have since been inspired to rewrite my story, especially after buying the original FFIX soundtrack from a great, geeky store in Akihabara. I'm revamping my intended plot, giving Ariana a sister and a few new characters to interact with, and rewriting most of the story to fix grammar and spelling. So, please, read and review and thanks for stopping by!  
As always, FFIX characters belong to Squaresoft except for Ariana and Lizzie.

This story is rated T for mild foul language, and for future sexuality, violence, and adult themes.

On a sweltering summer day in a small town, two sisters were trying to stay cool and entertained. Ariana, the elder of the two by eighteen months, was reclining on a lawn chair in their backyard with a glass of lemonade and a fashion magazine. Her short brown hair was pulled back from her face with a slim polka dotted headband, and to keep the sun out of her eyes, she wore a ridiculously oversized pair of yellow sunglasses that made her look very much like a fly of some sort. Her sister, Lizzie, sat on the deck above her, fanning herself with a paper plate beneath the shade of the deck table, a sour look on her face and a cigarette in her mouth. She was tall and willowy in comparison, and looked far more mature than her fifteen years gave her credit for.

For what was probably the seventh time in thirty minutes, Lizzie grumbled, "Are you done yet? It's too damned hot out here."

Ariana pulled her sunglasses down and shot a glance toward her sister, who was clad in her usual long sleeved sweater and jeans, all black of course. "Five more minutes. I don't even feel like I'm getting any sun at all yet." She put her magazine on the grass beneath her and took a sip of her lemonade, the ice clinking in the condensation covered glass. When she set it back down, she looked up at Lizzie again who was giving her the evil eye, and Ariana sighed, loudly. "Alright. Fine."

She had, after all, promised her younger sister that she would play a video game with her this summer, and Lizzie had been waiting for months for the latest install of her favorite series to come in to their local store. Unfortunately, they lived so far out in the boonies that new movies and video games were one of the lowest on their city's list of priorities. Lizzie had eventually grown tired of waiting and begged the reluctant Ariana to drive them into town so that she could buy it. Ariana had finally given in that morning and after much procrastination, she gave her word that after a bit of sunbathing, she'd retire to the basement with Lizzie for what would be at least a week straight of sitting on front of a television in the dark playing this game.

Ariana heaved herself up, swung her lotion glazed legs over the side of the lounge chair and stood, slipping her feet into her flip flops. Lizzie gleefully jumped from her chair, flicked her cigarette out into the yard, and ran inside, tossing the paper plate aside as she went. Her older sister smirked, and stamped the smoldering cigarette out before she ascended the deck's stairs.

The cool, air conditioned air blasted her in the face as she stepped inside, and shivering, she quickly shut the door behind her and padded across the kitchen toward the basement. She could already hear Lizzie tinkering around with the Playstation when she opened the door.

"What's the game called again?" she yelled from the top of the stairs.

Lizzie was busily plugging in the game system's components and it took her a moment before she bellowed in return, "Final Fantasy Nine. Hurry up, what are you doing?"

Not bothering to answer, Ariana left the doorway and crossed the kitchen to the freezer. Inside, an entire treasure box of popsicles had finally finishing freezing and she took out two for Lizzie and herself. Orange for her, blue for Lizzie. The freezer door snapped shut behind her and she went down into the dark basement where Lizzie knelt in front of the television, irritably flipping through the channels to find the Video setting.

"Here," Ariana said, handing over the blue popsicles. Lizzie's eyes lit up and she smiled, popping one unopened into her mouth for safekeeping while she continued to fiddle with the remote. Ariana chewed the top off of one of her own, and walked over to the bedroom opposite the stairway. Her pet rat, Charlie, squeaked as she turned on the lights and ran up to his cage door to greet her.

"Come on, you," she said as grabbed him up and put him on her shoulder. He reached up to nuzzle her face as she shut the cage door, and held on to her neck as Ariana walked back into the other room. She sat down slowly, and leaned back against the couch while she waited for Lizzie to work everything out.

At last, a popsicle and a half later, Lizzie stood up to turn the lights off, distributed controllers, and they sat back to watch the opening credits of what had promised to be the best Final Fantasy ever. A beautiful song filled the darkness, and white letters bearing the words "Final Fantasy IX" lit up the screen. Ariana chose "New Game" and a short video of a dark-haired and sad looking princess at her window, a majestic flying ship, and a brief view of what appeared to be the inside of the ship played, but then the screen went black and they heard the disc creak inside the game console. Charlie tittered on her shoulder, grinding his teeth.

"Damn it! What now?" Lizzie huffed and crawled over to the Playstation. She picked it up and turned it over, checking the wires. Everything was plugged in correctly. Shrugging, she looked at Ariana, and sighed. "I don't understand. I don't know what's wrong with it."

Ariana noticed then that it wasn't only that the screen had gone black, but everything around them was fuzzy, as though they were watching it on a television. She blinked, suspecting for the third time that year she needed glasses. When she opened her eyes again, though, she couldn't see anything at all. Everything had gone completely dark. Charlie dug his fingernails into her shoulder, obviously frightened. "Wait.. What's going on?" she asked, but her sister didn't respond. "Look. It's not just the TV. I think a breaker must have popped again."

Ariana reached out in front her, but her hand caught nothing but air. "Lizzie?"

"Do you feel that?" Her sister was breathing heavily, and through the darkness, Ariana could just barely make out the illumination of her eyes, wide open and alert.

The carpeted floor beneath them began to tremor and they both stood, alarmed. In retrospect, was not a very good idea at all because as she did so, the ground began to shake furiously, and a crack formed in the floor, ripping the carpet to shreds. Ariana pulled the frantic Charlie from her shoulder, whose nails had by now surely caused her to bleed, and held his tiny, shaking body tightly to her chest. The crack quickly grew into a chasm, a bright light shining from inside of it, and another great shake of the ground threw both Ariana and Lizzie into it, screaming.

The light grew so bright that they could no longer see anything around them and even their screams were lost.

Before they could even begin to fathom what was happening, they were being jostled and banged and thrown about against the sides of the chasm, Charlie squeaking loudly and pooping everywhere, and a few times Ariana had been slammed against something bony which she assumed, and hoped, was Lizzie.

Finally, after what seemed a very long time of this seemingly unnecessary abuse, Ariana was thrown painfully head first onto a wooden floor, right at someone's booted, animated feet.

Poor Charlie had been flung across the room, landing with a sickening squish against the wall opposite her.

Lizzie was nowhere to be seen.


End file.
